


The Price

by 852_Prospect_Archivist



Category: The Sentinel
Genre: Angst, Drama, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-10
Updated: 2013-05-10
Packaged: 2017-12-11 09:20:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,191
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/796547
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/852_Prospect_Archivist/pseuds/852_Prospect_Archivist
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What would you do?</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Price

## The Price

by Nemesis

I am Nemesis, and I am not a nice person. I do mean things to my characters. Actually, they've   
been called unforgivable things, but that was in another fandom, and I'm   
sure you guys can handle it, right? 

* * *

"Keys, Blair." 

"No way, Jim." He jogged backwards down the sidewalk. "You are way too wired to drive. One sensory spike and I'm a smear on the windshield." 

"I'm not letting you drive my truck." 

"Awe, Jim, you're no fun anymore. Not that you were that much fun to begin with." He extended one hand, holding the keys. "Of course, I'm the one who's had to put up with you all this time so-" 

"Chief?" There was the sudden stench of blood in the air and Blair was slowly sinking to the ground. "Blair?" 

* * *

He flashed his badge. "Captain Banks. Two of my men were admitted?" 

The nurse didn't even have to look at the computer. She knew Jim and Blair on sight. "Detective Ellison is in one of his semi-comas in Observation, but... Captain, Blair's being prepped for surgery. It doesn't look good." 

If Blair died while Jim was zoned... Hell, if Blair died period... Simon didn't even want to think about it. "Point me towards Jim. I'll try to wake him up." 

* * *

This wasn't a normal zone out, he knew that. In a normal zone out, everything went white. This time, he was in the jungle. "Blair?" Was he getting a third chance? Was it possible to bring Blair back a second time? 

"It's not that easy this time, Watchman. This time, there's a price." A man walked out of the greenery. "So the question posed is, how much do you truly value your guide's life?" 

"What kind of question is that?" 

"Your relationship is unconventional. Something more than friends, something less than lovers." 

"He's my guide." Jim wasn't willing to admit to anything, not just yet. 

"Yes. And what would you give if I told you I could save him?" 

"How could you do that?" Something about this guy made his skin crawl. 

He drew from his pocket a piece of paper. "Standard contract. We save your guide, and you give us something of value in return." 

"What?" 

"Don't you watch television? We want your soul, Sentinel." 

* * *

"Jim?" He shook him again. "Nothing." 

"He just doesn't want to wake up this time." The nurse waved her hand in front of Jim's face. "This isn't normal." 

"How bad is Sandburg, really?" 

"Bad. The x-rays showed a lot of damage. The bullet is lodged close to the spine, and it might have nicked the heart. The doctors are going to have to crack his chest to do the surgery, and there a good change he'll die on the table." 

Simon noticed Jim was clutching something. "What's that?" 

"A piece of Blair's shirt. The paramedics had to cut it off to separate them." 

* * *

He'd been given a few minutes to think it over. His soul, in exchange for Blair's life. He'd be given seven more years here, then he'd be collected. But those seven years were years he'd never have if he refused. "What happens to Blair at the end of the seven years?" 

"Nothing. You just come with me. They say it is better to rule in hell, but serving isn't that bad either." 

He looked up from the jungle floor. "What do I have to do?" 

* * *

As Simon watched, Jim's hand relaxed. The piece of Blair's shirt dropped from his grasp, bloody. A deep slash cut across his palm. "What the-"

Jim opened his eyes. "Where is he?" 

"In surgery. It doesn't look good, Jim." 

"I..." He looked at his hand, and noticed it was bleeding. `It was real.' And if it was real, that meant, "He's going to be fine." 

"You can't know that." 

"I know." He stared at the slash on his palm and knew it had been worth it. 

* * *

The doctors were practically crawling on their knees in apology. There had been a mistake on the x-rays. What had looked like a deadly chest wound was actually just a messy shoulder wound. They were very sorry to have worried Mr. Ellison and would he please not sue them for almost performing unnecessary and disfiguring surgery? 

It took Blair six hours to wake up and Jim refused to leave his side. Instead, he thought about what that thing had said. What it had dredged from the part of his mind he tried to leave alone. More than friends, less than lovers. And they'd been existing in that gray area for far too long. A lifetime with Blair wouldn't be enough, but he wasn't wasting the seven years he had. "I wonder who won the pool?" 

There was a very quiet, "What pool?" 

"Never mind." He took a moment to stare, to let the image of Blair alive and breathing sink in. "How do you feel?" 

"Like, someone shot me." Blair tried to sit up, then decided it was a bad idea. "Oh, by the way? Who shot me?" 

"I have no idea." 

"You haven't been out combing the streets in a fit of rampant BPS?" 

"No, I've been too busy waiting for my partner to wake up." 

"Okay, so let's think. Who have we pissed off in the past six months?" Thirty seconds out of the anesthesia and he was already guiding. 

"We'll have to go through the files." Jim couldn't tear his eyes away from the steady rise and fall of Blair's chest. 

"Jim, you're staring at me." 

"Sorry. Actually, no, no I'm not." He got up and started pacing. "Look, I can't do this anymore." 

"Do what?" 

"Not stare, not touch. Keep living in this gray place between friend and lover. I can't do it anymore, Blair. I can't keep watching you get hurt and pretend it's still just about friendship." 

"Jesus, Jim. How long have you been holding that in?" 

"Too long." 

Blair reached out with the arm that wasn't in a sling. "Congratulations, you finally managed to hide something from me. Because I thought you were just oblivious to the enormous and ever increasing sexual tension." 

"I'm tired of wasting time. If you died, and I'd never said anything..." 

"C'mere." He tugged Jim towards the bed. "I'm an invalid and you're tall, so you're going to have to lean over a little." He waited until Jim was in reach then pulled him down into a kiss. "Oh. THAT pool." 

"Yeah." He buried his face in Blair's neck and listened to his pulse, not caring how it contorted his back. 

"What'd you do to your hand?" 

"I think the paramedics did it. They had to... cut us apart." 

"Somehow, that seems appropriate." 

The taste of Blair still tingling his senses, Jim knew this was worth the cost of his soul. 

End of Part One: The Price 

* * *

End The Price by Nemesis: nemesis_07@juno.com

Author and story notes above.

  
Disclaimer: _The Sentinel_ is owned etc. by Pet Fly, Inc. These pages and the stories on them are not meant to infringe on, nor are they endorsed by, Pet Fly, Inc. and Paramount. 


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